CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION NEWSLETTER: September 5, 2007
http://www.chicagomediaaction.org
In this month's newsletter...
* Venue and times (finally) set for the FCC's public hearing
on media ownership and diversity in Chicago on 9/20/07
* Get a low or full power non-commercial radio license
* Chicago unplugs WiFi plan
* Comprehensive public school anti-commercialism bill
in Massachusetts legislature
* Survey of community media around the world
(1) ANNOUNCEMENTS AND SUGGESTED ACTIONS
*** Federal Communications Commission public hearing in Chicago 9/20/07
Maximedia, Minitruth. In fifteen days, Chicago will be hosting
the fifth of six official FCC public hearings on media ownership and
diversity. The hearing will feature panel presentations from
yet-to-be-named local community leaders and broadcasters along with
ample opportunities for public comment. Stop Big Media.
DATE: Thursday September 20, 2007
PLACE: Rainbow PUSH Coalition - 930 East 50th
Street (corner of South Drexel) Chicago
TIME: 4 – 11 PM
Check your email and the CMA web site for updates.
For more, go to:
http://stopbigmedia.com/=chicago
For local updates, radio and other promotions, coverage, downloadable
hearing flyers in English and Spanish, and more, go to:
www.chicagomediaaction.org
Who Owns the Media in Chicago? Get the facts:
http://www.freepress.net/docs/who_owns_chicago.pdf
* Want a new, full power, non-commercial radio station in the McHenry
County area or the SW Chicago burbs? Want to help build a new
progressive network for the area? Better hurry then! You've only got
until the FCC's October filing window. Limited time offer!!! For more
information:
Chicago radio coverage map (pdf): http://tinyurl.com/2hn4p7
http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/news.php?id=536
Join this listserv: http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=mwmedia
http://prometheusradio.org/full_power
http://www.radioforpeople.org/
* This year Congress could put more low power, noncommercial FM radio
stations in cities and suburbs across America. You can help by telling
Congress to pass the Local Community Radio Act.
Learn More: http://www.freepress.net/lpfm
* Mark your calendar: the next National Conference for Media Reform
will be held in Minneapolis, June 6-8, 2008. Join fellow activists,
media makers, educators, journalists, policymakers and concerned
citizens in calling for real and lasting changes to our nation's media
system. 2008 provides us with a great opportunity to put the issue of
media reform in the national spotlight.
http://www.freepress.net/conference/
(2) WHAT'S NEW IN MEDIA POLITICS?
* NBC's promise to the FCC was to grow the Telemundo TV network and
compete with Univision to raise the quality of programming and service
to the community. But instead, we are seeing massive job cuts, the
elimination of local news operations, and more. The network is one of
only two where Latinos can get their news and stay informed as to what
is happening in their communities and countries. The Latino community is
invited to voice its concern at the upcoming FCC hearing on the 20th.
Read more:
www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/news_print.asp?id=48628
www.redorbit.com/modules/news/tools.php?tool=print&id=705234
http://tinyurl.com/2yq287
www.nahj.org/nahjnews/articles/2006/october/telemundo.shtml
* Chicago unplugs WiFi plan; further delay in getting the Internet to
the people least able to afford it.
http://tinyurl.com/2fc359
http://www.suntimes.com/technology/531339,wifi082807.article
* Sun-Times holder seeks sale, board resignations.
Boston Globe, August 31, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2rzcvk
(3) PUBLIC MEDIA NEWS
* An awesome, comprehensive public school anti-commercialism bill is
wending its way through the Massachusetts legislature. It includes a ban
on ads displayed on any "electronic equipment" in public schools. Can we get one of these bills in Illinois?
http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/hb489/hb489.pdf
* "Make Public Media Ours, Not Theirs, Permanently"
"...after the last broadcast of “the Star Spangled Banner”, test pattern, and the static that will then follow, after the very last decrepit broadcast receiver is turned off for the very last time, we will continue to require portals to a neutral internet to access an expansive, commerce-free, public media commons."
Read the rest of this essay by CMA's Scott Sanders in the quite good September issue of Z Magazine, along with writings by Edward Herman, Noam Chomsky, Michael Albert and Phyllis Bennis, or you can read it here if you absolutely must:
http://themediastructurefailed.zoomshare.com/files/z_sept_07.pdf
Z Magazine, founded in 1988, is an independent monthly of critical
thinking on political, cultural, social, and economic life in the U.S., available in print and online. http://zmagsite.zmag.org/
* Fearing Fines, PBS to Offer Bleeped Version Of 'The War'
Paul Farhi, Washington Post Staff Writer, August 31, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2ll2jd
(4) FACT OF THE MONTH
Older (BBC) viewers in particular have lost faith, with 67% of over-65s saying that they now trust the BBC less than they used to.
(Source: ICM Research, which interviewed a random sample of 1,005 adults
by telephone on July 20-22.)
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2136731,00.html
(5) QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"I want more internet. I want every one of the 6 billion people on the
planet to be able to connect to the internet - I think they will add
things to it that will really benefit us all."
-- Vint Cerf, one of the handful of researchers who helped build the
internet in the 1970s, talking at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh
International Television Festival.
Cerf answers public questions:
http://video.ft.com/specials/?clipid=1359_FT0385
(6) WEBSITE OF THE MONTH
Waves of Change
The current project of Deep Dish is a survey of community media around
the world: radio, television, theater, murals, comics and the internet
as forms of resistance to homogenous commercial culture.
http://www.deepdishwavesofchange.blogspot.com/
*** *** *** *** *** *** ***
This is an email from Chicago Media Action, a Chicago activist
group devoted to media issues.
This newsletter is edited by Scott Sanders and Mitchell Szczepanczyk.
Chicago Media Action, P.O. Box 14140, Chicago IL 60614-0140
Call toll-free: 1-866-260-7198
Web: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org
E-mail: cma@chicagomediaaction.org
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